County-Held Certificates of Sale: how it works
County-held certificates of sale (assignment by the county)
A county or other taxing agency must buy in and hold any property offered at the tax sale for which there is no private purchaser, and the collector issues the certificate of sale in the county's name. Once it holds that certificate the governing body may sell and assign it, or after foreclosure sell the property itself. That assignment is the Maryland equivalent of an over-the-counter purchase, and an assigned certificate carries the same right to foreclose as one bought at the sale, since a certificate of sale is assignable and the assignment vests all the right, title and interest of the original purchaser. Whether a county actually offers its held certificates, how it prices them, and whether it publishes a list are local decisions, so ask the collector of taxes. A county may also ask the court to have a private holder's certificate assigned to the county when the foreclosure has stalled, in which case the private holder forfeits both its rights and the money it paid.
Does Maryland publish a lands-available list?
Maryland has no statewide lands-available list of the Florida type. County-held certificates sit with the county governing body, and property the county takes by foreclosure is disposed of under the county's own surplus property process. Unclaimed tax sale surplus is the money side of the same problem: the collector must notify the prior owner within 90 days after delivering a deed, and each county must run a uniform claim process for it.
This route skips the live auction, which means these are the parcels nobody bid on, so the due diligence matters even more. Every state names this inventory differently, and the state-held and struck-off land table maps each local name to the same mechanism. The over-the-counter guide has the cross-state playbook.
Verified Aug 9, 2026 against Maryland sources.
Tax Sale Atlas publishes educational information about public tax sale processes. This is not legal, financial, or investment advice. Rules, dates, and fees change; confirm with the county office before you bid.